Since last month, when the trailer for Michael Rapaport‘s “Beats, Rhymes, & Fights” documentary on A Tribe Called Questwas leaked, I’ve been in anticipation for it. I’m still not sure what its fate or release date will be, but the word is that the premiere got quite a reaction last weekend at the Sundance Film Festival. Despite Q-Tip‘s inexplicable and sudden resistance to the whole project, I’m hopin’ it sees a release in some form. I spent almost the entire ’90s as a serious follower of ATCQ, all the way up until their breakup in ’98.
Yeah, you know it… today’s entry is all about those songs that used to come on the radio, and you might get smacked in the mouth for singin’. Either that, or you’d get asked about a certain part in the song and what you know about it, and you’d have to act like you didn’t know shit. Or maybe that was just me.
Today’s AllTime8 is all about eight great “GTD” anthems from the ’90s. Music to hump by, if you will. It’s kinda funny to see people from my generation comment on new music and say “it’s all about sex now, back then they sang about love”… I don’t know what ’90s them niggas grew up in, but the one I grew up in was where they started getting a whole lot more blatant wit’ it. But hey, that’s neither here nor there- here are my eight personal favorite ’90s joints dedicated to Gettin’ The Draws:
With the new year, also comes new features on DLT90s… thus spawns today’s entry. As much as I love the ’90s, hence the name of this site, there is one thing I do not like: those who act like eyyyyyy’thing from back in the day was classic. For example, you can go to just about any old video- and I mean ANY old video- on YouTube, and there’ll be at least 5 comments about how wack today’s music is and how the video in question is so incredible in comparison. Comments like that make sense when it’s in reference to, say, “Time 4 Sum Aksion” or somethin’… not so much when in reference to something like the video I present to you on this afternoon.
So where was I? Oh yeah, 1995. By the end of that year, the Boot Camp Clik was still on the ball. Black Moon (despite member 5 FT leaving the group in ’94) was still rollin’ and ready to drop new material soon, Smif-n-Wessun‘s Dah Shinin‘ had a strong street-level presence, and Heltah Skeltah and OGC were introduced as the Fab 5 with a single that took off. The Boot Camp had developed a brand, with a distinctive look and their own sound, produced by Mr. Walt and Black Moon DJ Evil Dee, known as Da Beatminerz.
“It went down like this- one little nigga snuck through the door/ Peeped the scene, sniped a few then crept through with two more/ Heads was gettin’ Nervous- that’s three now they wanna break north/ Too late- five more tore the door straight the fuck off!”
-Rock from Heltah Skeltah, “Operation Lockdown”
Around this time of year, I don’t know what it is, but my musical preference gets in a grimy mid-’90s hoodie-n-Tims kinda mode (well, either that or love songs, but that’s a story for next month). Something about the winter just brings out that moody shit, I guess. In light of that, I say that to say this: one crew whose music was always winter-appropriate would have to be Brooklyn, NY‘s own Boot Camp Clik. In a 2011 world where niggas are wearin’ Ugg boots and tight jeans, their music and presentation was a polar opposite of what we’ve come to expect as of late. But for a nice portion of the ’90s, the BCC had their own corner in the game. I’ve recently been listening to a great deal of their classic shit, which brings us here today for the first of a two-parter (!) on one of hip-hop’s most underrated units.
15 years ago around this time, the winter blizzard of ’96 was whoopin’ our ass out here in B-More. Meanwhile, somewhere in Queens, NY there was a DJ on the rise named Clue, who was starting to take the throne as the top mixtape cat in the game. Today, DLT90s gives you another from his ’90s catalog, Winter Flava ’96- also known as Somethin’ 4 The Radio.
So… I understand that Lauryn Hill closed out 2010 playing her ol’ crazy-ass reindeer games, eh? I can’t be too surprised though, as she’s seemed to revel in this reputation of constantly being late and putting on lackluster performances, yet still having people pay to see her. If there was ever an artist from the world of hip-hop whose career has become a tragedy over the last ten years, Lauryn is slowly but surely coming for that #1 spot, second only to DMX. It could’ve all been so simple, but she’d rather make it hard.
Lo and behold, DLT90s closes the year out by doin’ something relevant to the year we’re in. Hell done froze over, and now it’s finna snow in August! Yep y’all, this year was pretty light on the albums that really stuck, but such has been the case for a while. On the other hand, there were still a number of songs that shared iPod space with all my old shit during 2010. Here’s the 10 that I particularly gave a run.
"@KristinaDivine fellas u prefer a woman w/ ass n no chest or chest w/ no ass"<-chest no ass. tho' i have recently become a fan of the cakes 3 hours ago
i remember when damn near every tweet i did was about music. i've now expanded to titties, race, porn, people who annoy me, and sad shit. 3 hours ago
so i've been back actively on Twitter for a month after spending most of 2011 poppin' up every now-n-again... 3 hours ago
Posted by Danj! 
